Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Who Can Benefit From Custom Text Books?

We're often asked by professors if custom publishing is right for them. While we steadfastly believe that it is right for every type of instructor we have noticed that certain disciplines lend themselves particularly well to services like AcademicPub.

First are those involved with Politics, Current Affairs, or Government; subjects that require consistently updated textbooks. Often professors in these fields complain that textbooks get old quickly; that they have to switch books entirely all too often between years or be caught teaching now irrelevant content. In some extreme cases this has pushed those instructors away from textbooks entirely, but for many there is a great attractiveness in the concept of being able to simply switch out a few chapters each year while retaining the same general form of a textbook.

Then there are professors in Media, Marketing, and Advertising. Many of these instructors find themselves consistently providing their own material and relying more on scholarly articles plucked from multiple sources. The ability to pull from multiple sources into a single text can be extraordinary attractive to academics in that situation.

The third type of instructor teaches TOEFL/ESL/ESOL. Often we hear complaints about finding books that truly teach conversational English (particularly localized conversational English). This dilemma forces these teachers to look elsewhere for materials. Often they express a desire to create their own workbook.

Have you published a custom book? What's your field and how has it helped you? Tell us all about it in the comments.

If you're interested in learning more about AcademicPub we suggest you take one of our webinars or explore our website.